Tusculum College students Melissa Johnson and Kim Mullins recently presented papers at the Blue Ridge Undergraduate Conference.

The two English majors were among the more than 50 students from colleges in the Appalachian region to make presentations at the conference, held at Milligan College near Elizabethton.

Johnson, of Rogersville, presented "The Use of Masking and Unmasking in African American Literature." In her abstract, Johnson described her paper as exploring "the ways in which the techniques of masking are used in African American Literature from the slave narrative of Frederick Douglas to the early 20th century writers" Wendell W. Johnson and W. E. B. Du Bois."

Mullins, who is from Clintwood, Va., investigated "A Woman's World in Mildred Haun's "The Hawk's Done Gone. Mullins' paper, according to her abstract, addressed "the struggles, experiences, and relationships of the female characters" in the book.

Accompanying the students to the conference were Katie Doman, assistant professor of English at Tusculum, and Dr. Taimi Olsen, associate professor of English at the college.

The Blue Ridge Undergraduate Conference highlights undergraduate research from institutions throughout the Southern Appalachian region in various disciplines in the natural and social sciences, as well as those disciplines representing the humanities, fine arts, and education. The conference is designed to be a high quality but low pressure event to encourage students to research, write and present papers in their courses of study.

Participating in the conference were students from public, but primarily private, colleges and universities in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia.